Review: A Beautiful Mind

A Beautiful Mind [2001]

Directed by: Ron Howard

*ing: Russell Crowe
Ed Harris
Jennifer Connelly
Christopher Plummer
Paul Bettany
Josh Lucas

Rating: *****

It is impossible to understand Hollywood’s fascination with making films on weird and comparatively unknown real life people. Films like Finding Neverland, Erin Brockovich, Capote and the recent The Last King of Scotland being examples. One such piece of cinema is the Four Academy Award winner including Best Picture and Direction - The Beautiful Mind, a film that follows the life and times of Nobel Prize Winner John Nash, loosely based on Sylvia Nasar’s biography of the same name. It turns out to be one of the best films in its genre. A true master-piece of our times.

Depicting the life of John Nash from September, 1947 when he receives the Carnegie Scholarship for mathematics and arrives at the prestigious Princeton University as a grad-student to December, 1994 when he was awarded the Nobel Memorial Prize for Economics, the film is a roller-coaster ride of emotions, illusions, love, humility and survival.

Already showing signs of some sort of mental sickness as he arrives at Princeton, the unstable John Nash becomes best friends with his funny literature-student-room-mate Charles (Paul Bettany) and forms an awkward friendship with his other colleagues as well as intellectual rival Martin Hansen (Josh Lucas). He talks less and works more as he claims that he doesn’t like people and vise-versa. His unsuccessful experiences with women and other college experiences on the whole, inspire him to fruitfully create the theory of governing dynamics in mathematical economics. He is instantly considered a genius by every staff and fellow-student.

After completing his studies, he starts working for the Massachusetts Institute of Technology with a couple of old colleagues in tow. It’s the year 1953, and John is invited to The Pentagon to decipher encrypted telecommunication codes from an enemy which he successfully does only using his mind. Surprised by his amazing abilities with numbers, a mysterious Government Defense Agent - William Hatcher (Ed Harris) encourages John to look out for numerical patterns in magazines, newspapers etc. in order to thwart a Soviet plot. He obliges as he is convinced of helping the country.

A revisit to Princeton and John encounters his old room-mate Charles again who is accompanied by his niece Marcee (Vivien Cardone). John also gets smitten by one of his students Alicia (Jennifer Connelly) which leads to a jittery proposal and marriage. Meanwhile, John is chased and fired at by presumed Russians when he is on his way after depositing a confidential report in the letterbox of William Hatcher’s secret office. It’s this incident that triggers off John’s already unstable state of mind. He becomes increasingly paranoid of being attacked or killed and even behaves like a secret agent himself.

Due to his highly eccentric behaviour, he’s finally taken away by the medics to a psychiatric facility on his wife’s request. Tests and investigations reveal that John is a patient of severe schizophrenia. He continues believing himself to be a hostage of the Russians when a meeting with Alicia dawns him with the ultimate truth. He realizes that he has been living a life consisting of illusions, delusions and fantasies. That most of the people he talks to and is close to are nothing but characters out of his insane imagination including his best friend Charles. John is devastated.

After a series of shock-therapy sessions, John is taken home and permanently put on antipsychotic medicine. Taking these medicines though affect his intellect and sex life immensely, frustrating and killing him from within.

The second half of the film trails John’s fight with medication, himself, his illusions and society.

It portrays his immense self-confidence and will power as he starts living with his imaginary friends around him without letting them disrupt his normal life. It captures his journey from a mad-man out of the asylum to teaching at the Princeton and going on to win the Nobel Prize. He conquers humiliation, shame, madness, fun makers and his own demons to become one of the greatest mathematicians of our time.

A beautiful mind needs a beautiful perception to understand its depth and emotions. It’s the extraordinary story of an extraordinary man, extraordinarily and mesmerizing told by the director.

On the technical front, the cinematography (Roger Deakins) and art direction (Robert Guerra) succeed in making every year and decade shown extremely believable. Special kudos to the make-up department for the superb and realistic make-up of the aging John Nash.

Russell Crowe as John Forbes Nash is out of this world, outstanding and mind-blowing. He portrays the razor-thin line between genius and crazy with meticulous magnificence. As the mad illusionist mathematician he will steal your hearts and souls. He arouses sympathy and care with every move and each frame. I fail to understand what else could he do to win that Oscar? It’s a performance that is a million stages higher than winners like Capote and The Last King of Scotland.

Jennifer Connelly as the woman in the ultimate dilemma is as heart warming as she is real. As an erratic genius’ wife, she is splendidly contrived.

Christopher Plummer as John’s doctor, Paul Bettany, Ed Harris and Josh Lucas prove that they’re thankful just to be in a film of this caliber.

A Beautiful Mind is not the back-door entertainment available cheaply and instantly. It’s a motion picture that will move you, explode you with its execution and bombard you with lumps in the throat. Even though the film is ‘Hollywoodized’ and commercialized by omitting details like Nash's life as a bisexual, his divorce, having a child out of wedlock, the timely occurrence of his schizophrenia, and the fact that he never spoke a word at the Nobel Prize ceremony, it’s still a piece of art that comes along once in a lifetime. A film as warm and enlightening as this one shouldn’t be missed even if it’s your wedding.

- Abbas Aziz Dalal.